Rowe Sanctuary

 

At the beginning of April I decided to take a short trip down to Nebraska to see the sandhill cranes. I had already been offered a job but since it took a while for the background check, drug test and all of the paper work to go through I decided it was the perfect time to head down to the Rowe Sanctuary. It had been many years since I last visited the sanctuary, I was still shooting film at the time, and typically the timing never seemed to work out. Either we were vacationing down south in late winter or we were heading to Yellowstone in May, either way it would be difficult to get away so close to another vacation. Since I was not starting work for another week I decided it would be a perfect time to go. 

The Rowe Sanctuary is an Audubon sanctuary located in central Nebraska. It consists of 1900 acres of river channel, wet meadows and agricultural land along the Platte River. It is named for Lillian Annette Rowe who financed teh initial purchase of 782 acres back in 1974 to help protect the habitat for migrating cranes.

 It is necessary to protect this part of the Platte River because it is the main resting spot for cranes migrating back north across the central flyway. Each year approximately 600,000 or more cranes stop at the Platte between mid February and mid April. This includes about 80% of the worlds population of lesser sandhill cranes. It also includes a good number of greater sandhill cranes and many other birds. The weekend I was there we saw a pair of endangered whooping cranes mixed in with the sandhills.

The reason why they stop at this location is because the Platte is a shallow river with many sandbars. During the day the cranes venture through the bordering fields eating any left over grains. Since cranes do not have feet that allow them to perch in trees they spend the night standing in the shallow water of the Platte. The shallow waters act as an alarm to let them know if an terrestrial predators may be around. Each morning the cranes rise up from the river giving visitors a spectacular show only to return each night for an encore.

Orange Sulphur

 The orange sulphur is a common yellow butterfly that can be found through out most of North America. They are very similar in appearance to the clouded sulphur when perched, as in the photo above. However when they open their wings the upper surface is more of an orange color where the clouded sulphur is yellow on the tops of their wings.

It is possible to tell the difference between male and females by looking at the black border on the upper side of the wings. With the male the border is solid black, like in the photos above, while the females have yellow spots in the border. Orange sulphurs larval host plant is alfalfa, clovers, and other legumes.

Whisper

For the past several years I have had the pleasure of putting together the calendar for The Raptor Center. Each year it has been a struggle trying to figure out how to photograph the birds, after all most of my experience has been with birds that do not sit still let alone pose. This picture is my favorite so far. This was the October photo in the 2013 calendar. The photo was taken in a small pumpkin field at the University of Minnesota St Paul Campus, where The Raptor Center is located. The UofM St Paul Campus houses the School of Agricultural and the School of Veterinary Medicine, which is why it is one of the few places in Minnesota where you can find a barn owl and a pumpkin patch. Whisper is one of our education birds. She came to TRC from the World Bird Sanctuary. The World Bird Sanctuary raises barn owls as part of a release program in Missouri but Whisper was slated to become an education bird.  

Golden-backed Snipe Fly

 Like many people I am not a big of flies. There are approximately 120,000 species of flies in the world and most of the ones that I have encountered are not on my friends list. In my experience many fly species are parasitic. They bite mammals, birds, and people and drink some of their blood. During the summer the deer and black flies in the northern two thirds of Minnesota can be almost unbearable. Then there are house flies that are always trying to raise their maggots in your food and garbage. However I did come across this rather cool looking fly in the southeastern corner of the state. The golden-backed snipe fly is native to eastern portions of North America. I am guessing that Minnesota is on the edge of their range because I have only seen these flies once in my 50 long years of life. There is not a lot of information available about this species, or most insects for that matter, but it is believed to be a predator that eats other insects instead of a parasite. So not only does it look great but it is also less biting.

Dorcas Copper

The dorcas copper is a small northern butterfly that is typically found around bogs or other wetland areas in Alaska, Canada, and parts of northern United States. There is typically one brood per summer from June through August. They are very similar looking to the purplish copper.

Females lay their eggs one at a time on the underside of the leaves of their host plant, which are cinquefoils. In the fall the eggs fall to the ground where they will overwinter as eggs. In spring the new caterpillars will emerge and crawl back up the new host plants and begin to eat the leaves.

Atlantis Fritillary

 The Atlantis fritillary is a brushfoot butterfly that is found in Southern Canada, and the northern and eastern United States. They usually have one brood per summer and can be identified from other fritiallry butterflies by the black border on the upper side of the wings. Their larval host plants are violets. This year the number of butterflies that I have seen has been way down. It most likely has something to do with the late winter that we had this year.

Silver-bordered Fritillary

The silver-bordered fritillary is medium sized brushfoot butterfly that is found in the northern United States and Canada. It is usually found around wetlands, such as wet meadows, swamps and bogs. I photographed this one at the Big Bog State Recreational Area last summer.

 This species over winters as a caterpillar so there are typically two broods per year. The first brood begins to emerge around mid may and the second begins around July. The larval host plants are members of the violet family, which you can see the butterfly above is perched on. The species gets its name from the large silver-white triangles that border the under side of both fore and rear wings.

Teneral Dragonfly

I went out to Crex Meadows yesterday hoping to get some video of butterflies for an upcoming program I am doing. While I out checking the butterfly weed I found this teneral dragonfly perched on the flower. Dragonflies are predators, they do not eat nectar or pollen like butterflies, however when they first emerge from their larval stage they are vulnerable and usually find an out of the way place to perch while their wings firm. I would guess that this is some kind of meadowhawk but teneral dragonflies are often hard to identify because they usually have not developed their field markings yet. With its orangish coloration the butterfly weed was a good place to perch because it blended in nicely. 

Stella Orangetip

 Usually when we go to Yellowstone at the end of May its still cold and snowy. This is usually what I hope for. Since the climate is worse at the higher elevations we tend to see more wildlife by the roads when it is still cold and snowy. I had thought that this would be the case this year, since our winter her in Minnesota seemed to last forever but it seems that they had a mild winter in Yellowstone this year and there was very little snow left by the time that we arrived. However a mild Yellowstone winter can have its advantages also. Typically we see very few insects in Yellowstone when we visit, except for wood ticks. This year though I managed to photograph several species of butterflies including this Stella orangetip which is a new species for me. The Stella orangetip is one of orangetip butterflies found in western North America. The Stella is found in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, northeastern California and Alberta Canada. They are often found in mountainous regions and are considered by some as a harbinger of spring. Adults feed on flower nectar while the larva feed on plants in the mustard family.  

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Ambush

When they think of spiders most people think of webs. Charlotte and scary spider movies have helped to reinforce the link between spiders and webs in the public consciousnesses. However not all spiders spin elaborate webs to catch their prey. The goldenrod crab spider is a good example. The goldenrod crab uses camouflage to ambush its prey. It is able to change its color between white and yellow so that it can blend in to a flower where it can wait for prey. When the skipper comes in to the flower to collect nectar and/or pollen the spider attacks, injecting its prey with a paralyzing venom. 

Arctic Skipper

 The Arctic skipper is, as its name would suggest, found primarily in the northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere. Its range extends as far north as Alaska. Here in Minnesota we typically see one brood per year and they usually emerge in late spring or early summer, mid May to early July. The larva feed on a variety of different types of grasses while the butterfly feeds on the nectar of various species of flowers. The Arctic skipper is one of the more colorful skippers that we see here.

Monarch Caterpillar

 The larval form of the monarch, or caterpillar as it is more commonly called, lives by eating various forms of milkweed plant. The come from an egg that is about the size of a pinhead that is laid on the underside of a milkweed leaf. The small caterpillars begin by eating the leaf that the egg was attached to. As they eat they grow and develop, shedding their skin numerous times. Each one of these developmental periods is called an instar. The sap from the milkweed is toxic to many insects and birds which makes the monarch rather unpalatable to most predators. The plant that this caterpillar is chewing on is commonly called butterfly weed and it is a species of milkweed.